I am very pleased to inform you that HB-1336, the bill I asked you to support allowing the PUD to be a broadband provider, passed!!! Thank you all soooo much!

https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=1336&Year=2021

However, a bill passing and our government actually doing something, as I'm sure you're well aware, are two very different things. There are still many steps to take. First, while the PUD did post a Broadband Analyst Position, this analyst will need to work for a general manager that is willing to not only take action on broadband but cares about it and understands it. In essence, without the right staff nothing will happen at the PUD as we've seen at the Port, County and City of Bellingham. 

So I need to ask you to write to our PUD commissioners and ask them to take the following steps.

1. With Commissioner Deshmane, give him big high 5s and hugs (ask first). He has been working tirelessly on public broadband for almost as long as I have. I speak with him often as I am working on several community projects. Atul is 100% committed and we should be very thankful for him. He cares about equity and equality. He walks the walk.

2. Commissioner Grant made a lot of promises during her campaign about broadband, especially public fiber. Time to make sure she actually follows through.

3. Commissioner Murphy says he sees the educational benefits of this. Please remind him of that. He hasn't done much on broadband for the whole time I've been following him, yet I am hopeful. He may be afraid to ask the PUD staff to do things... We see this at the COB, Port and County. We need this aspect of our governmental culture to change. 

Specifically we need to make sure that the PUD does not make the same mistakes the Port and City did moving forward. The PUD needs to do a nationwide search for a upper echelon staff, like their general manager, when positions open up. This is to make sure that we have a GM that is not just capable of understanding the importance of broadband infrastructure, especially public fiber, but also is willing to act on it. We see two failed examples of this in the Port who, although they had and amazing presentation done by economic development analyst Gina Stark, allowed internal politics to allow staff member Rob Fix to stall significant work on public broadband to protect special interests at Comcast and WAVE. So in essence, your elected officials at the Port are allowing staff to tell them what to do, which means you don't have a voice. It is sad to think about how much the Port and PUD could have done together over the last few years, but thanks to a lack of leadership from our Port Commissioners almost nothing has happened. What the Port has on the drawing board now is more like corporate welfare for WAVE than a real solution. They are well aware that they need to compete with private interests to drive prices down and create a equitable network that addresses most of our economic and social concerns and that it needs to be a robust public fiber network. 

In the case of the City of Bellingham, Mayor Fleetwood intentionally missed the opportunity to conduct a nationwide search for a new public works director to appease staff that have a long history of protecting big telecom, and appointed Eric Johnston instead. Fleetwood did this although he knew that Eric would try to block all efforts on public broadband and protect special interests as Eric is doing now. Remember, we still don't have access to our existing public network, and either Dig Once or Open Access policies. The heavily compromised Broadband Advisory Group Eric put together has 4 representatives, including 1 voting member, for WAVE on it. Not to mention all of the big telecom interests Eric insisted be on his big telecom panel. Eric insisted that we sit on these robust public resources during a pandemic, and even refused to allow volunteers to install public access hotspots during the crisis, even as our teachers reported that even expensive Comcast, CenturyLink and other big telecom connections weren't working adequately and that the low-income offerings from big telecom were a joke.   

So please, write to the PUD and ask them not to follow in the COBs footsteps. Ask for a nationwide search for high level staff positions like the general manager's position, ask for a proper comprehensive broadband speed study using network load testing (like rrul) so we have real world results to be conducted, and ask them to live up to their campaign promises. Otherwise, I fear it will be many more years of our governmental entities pretending to work on issues but ultimately producing nothing. Remember, we have the power but we need to make our voices heard.

Here is their contact info:

Commissioner Deshmane: atul.deshmane@pudwhatcom.org

Commissioner Grant: christinegrant@pudwhatcom.org

Commissioner Murphy: mike.murphy@pudwhatcom.org

Please remember, the PUD, combined with the Port, has jurisdiction over virtually all of Whatcom County, including the City, done correctly the PUD could be a real help to everyone and move us forward creating next-generation jobs, providing telehealth and education opportunities, and much, much more.